British gold coins were first minted in 1489 when Henry VII issued first 20 shilling gold coin, with his portrait on it. Thereafter the minting was stopped when James I ascended the throne in 1603.

Those who have great interest in gold coins usually collect modern sovereigns. Early sovereign coins are very expensive and many people cannot afford to buy it. If you are fond of collecting coins, here is some basic information that will help you in your search for the perfect one.

Collect the British gold coins by reverse design:

These type of coins don’t cost too much in comparison with others. Most of the gold coins has a reverse design of St. George killing a dragon. But there is a time through the years that a shield reverse was used, for the royalties have different kinds of shields.

George IV, William IV, and Victoria used different kinds of shields on their coins. While Elizabeth II only has a shield reverse in two years, the time when it was the 500th anniversary of the sovereign. In 2005 she used a different design of St George slaying a dragon on the reverse design.

Collecting by mint mark:

Mint mark is a very tiny letter that can be found either above the date or beneath the portrait. This mark was used to identify the place where the coin was made. You’ll see letters like M, S, C, I, P, and SA. These letters stands for Melbourne, Sydney, Ottawa Canada, Bombay India, Perth, and Pretoria South Africa. From 1932, all sovereigns were made in London. So, if you see a coin that does not have any letter, it means that it was made in London.

Collecting by date:

This is the most expensive way of collecting British Gold coins. There are some coins in some years that happen to be the most expensive. This collection will include every year and every mint mark. This type of coins are very expensive because there were some years that produced rare coins such as the early sovereign coins. The older the sovereign coin is, it gets costlier and costlier. There are only a few collectors who can actually afford this collection.

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Collecting by portrait variations:

There are more than few different portraits on gold royalties during their reign. This is also a good way of collecting British gold coins. There are 4 portrait of Victoria, George VI had 1, and George V has 2, while Elizabeth has 5.

Collecting by monarch:

Most of the collectors have this kind of basic collection since royalties always had their portrait when minting a coin so it is easier to collect them. British gold coins especially for the numismatic are fascinating and beautiful, but there are some of the coins are expensive especially those early sovereign. Also remember that generally speaking the older the coin the larger its value is.

Forex trade means exchange of money. The currency is always priced in pairs. When you are trading, you are buying one currency while you are selling another one simultaneously. Once you make the commitment to trade, you have to complete the deal. If you decide to exit the trade in the middle, you will have to either buy or sell the opposite position. This means that you will have to sell Euros and buy US dollars in return.

Spreads are forex traders’ best friends. It does not affect the profitability. Brokers usually do very good business when they have the tightest spreads. It is very complicated to understand the spread in forex spot market. The spread is the difference between the bid and the ask price. The quote will be given to you in pips. The “bid” is the price that you can sell the currency at. The “ask” is the price you can buy currency at. A pip is the smallest unit by which a cross price quote changes. For example; if the quote you receive between EUR/USD is 1.2222/4, then the spread equals 2 pips. If the quote is 1.22225/40, then the spread is going to equal 1.5 pips. Spreads are important because the affect the ability to make a return on your investment.

Spreads are the commission base for all brokers. Most of the brokers make their money with the help of best forex spreads. Wider spreads result in large broker commissions. The wider the spread is, it results higher ask price and lower bid price. The consequences of this formula is that a trader will end up paying more when you buy, and less when you sell. As a result, it will lower the profit potential. A broker that has a tighter spread will always get the maximum priority in this business.

Just because a broker has a tight spread does not automatically mean that you will turn a profit. You also need to have a proven trading strategy and proper execution. If your execution is poor, it will be tough to determine that the broker you are using has a wide or tight spread. A tight spread that is executed properly will produce the profit as per the expectations.

In Forex trading, your main priority is to buy low and sell high. Therefore, you don’t want to limit your dealings with a broker that has a wider spread, because it means lower profit earning abilities. A half-pip lower spreads does not sound like much. However, it can easily mean the difference between making a profit and losing your shirt. A good example is when your monitor shows a tight spread, but your trade comes in a few pips higher.

Forex trading does not follow the conventional trading floor. On the inter bank market, the larger the ticket size, the larger is the spread. This is not automatically the same for Forex trading.

One of the most valuable types of insurance you can have is health insurance. There are numerous occasions that may require you to receive medical attention. Without an insurance policy, you may be denied treatment. You may also become financially indebted to the hospital or health care provider that treats you. Even the cheapest insurance policies can protect you from the unexpected misfortunes of everyday life.

Acquiring cheaper health insurance is better than having no coverage at all. Without insurance, your health care expenses are your responsibility. This can quickly add up to thousands of dollars. Whether you need medical care for an illness, a surgical procedure or an emergency, the costs are ultimately greater than what you would pay for a policy premium. The bills can add up and create unexpected and unwelcome debt.

Not only does having a medical insurance policy reduce your financial responsibilities and out-of-pocket costs, it can provide peace of mind. Illnesses, injuries and other health complications often arise out of the blue. Without insurance, you may spend unnecessary time worrying about the what-ifs in life. If you choose the cheapest insurance policy available, you can receive coverage for medicines and emergency treatment.

Without insurance, you may also be less likely to seek medical care or get regular checkups. Many people without insurance coverage don’t get properly screened for medical issues. This can lead to a worsening of certain conditions and diseases. By purchasing one of the cheaper health insurance policies, you can schedule regular visits with a primary care physician. Your doctor will know your medical history and can give you the appropriate preventative care.

Many employers provide health insurance coverage as well as affordable life insurance packages. You can take comfort in knowing adequate protection is available for you and your loved ones. Whether you have a medical condition or not, safeguarding yourself and those close to you can relieve you of unnecessary stress. Combining medical insurance with an all-inclusive, affordable life insurance policy will give you all the security you need.

In many ways, your health determines your quality of life. If you want to remain healthy, you will need to visit a doctor regularly. In addition to receiving routine healthcare maintenance, you may experience unexpected complications. No matter what your needs are, medical expenses can add up quickly. A comprehensive health insurance policy will protect you and prevent any financial upset.

Many long-term, “buy-and-hold” investors often scoff at those that rely upon technical analysis and the benefits that these methods purport to produce. Academic studies tend to refute these benefits, but the active trading profession would not persist as long as it has if price arbitrage opportunities in our trading markets were not available for the taking. Analyzing previous pricing behavior can produce predictive models that yield better than a “50/50” result when applied appropriately in trending markets. The art form depends on selecting your most opportune moments and applying a disciplined approach to all actions taken.

Technical Analysis, or “TA” for short, has been with us for hundreds of years. It relies on three simple principles as the foundation of its research studies:

1) Price is the ultimate measure of all known information and its impact on supply and demand forces in the market;
2) Pricing behavior tends to move in trends;
3) Historical pricing patterns tend to repeat themselves.

To the regret of many politicians and government officials the world over, all market prices fluctuate, sometimes second-by-second, seemingly replicating the ebbs and flows apparent in nature when various forces interact. This “volatility” is the basis for the trading profession, because without volatility, there would be no apparent trading opportunities to leverage for profit. From these basic assumptions, “TA” has evolved in complexity over time, but today’s technology and software tools instantly do all the heavy computational work, leaving adequate time for interpretation, strategy development, and eventual execution of a trading plan.

TA is flexible and can be effectively used in all trading markets, but its uses are easily apparent in the world of foreign exchange where the average forex platform provided by industry brokers is a sophisticated example of how far the art form has progressed. Technical indicators abound, and other software can help with pattern recognition that may produce potential trading set ups. There are also alerting services that use TA to broadcast signals to their user groups, leaving much of the tedious research effort to computers and freeing up a trader’s time to focus primarily on execution strategies.

Long-term investors tend to rely more on fundamental analysis, much like a banker that reviews credit information for small business loans. Much of this focus tends to be on prior financial statements and economic reports on the respective sector of a selected company’s involvement. Care is given to screening for undervalued securities, but little care is given to the current “technical” state of the company’s stock pricing charts. Technical analysts, or “chartists”, can quickly assess if an anticipated entry point is optimal from a market perspective, similarly to a business cycle not favoring small business loans. Timing the market is not the objective, but preventing an entry at an overbought level can produce immediate benefits that do last for the security’s holding period.

Long-term investors would be wise to leverage TA benefits when entering any market.